Over a cup of coffee
by zielddhy
Summary: Written for Shuuhei's birthday challenge: Instant coffee makes a perfect gift.


Shuuhei yawned. His ears automatically tuned out every word Rangiku said. Really, the woman could be so infuriating sometimes. Whenever she felt the need to 'let out this overwhelming feeling in her heart', which actually was just complaining, Shuuhei was always her first choice of victim. Tonight was no better, Rangiku was complaining about the lack of decent man in Seireitei and how it wasted her time and maybe it was time for her to give up and the rest of it was tuned out by Shuuhei.

Shuuhei yawned again. He hugged the pillow Izuru gave him and burrowed his chin deeper. As he breathed, Shuuhei couldn't help but inhaled the faint sweet scent of Izuru left there on the pillow. God, how he missed his boyfriend. The blonde had left for a mission in the human world for six days now. Captain Yamamoto had ordered him to examine the hollow detector function and to come up with a solution on how to better patrol the living world.

Shuuhei knew the mission was important and understand that Kira was the perfect candidate to complete it. In fact, he was the one who suggested it to Kuchiki-taichou, who later suggested it to Yamamoto-taichou. And now, Shuuhei was the victim of his own choice.

He hugged the pillow tighter and the action didn't go unnoticed by Rangiku, who stopped in mid-sentence. She narrowed her eyes and immediately recognized the signs of 'tremendously missing Kira' attitude. Rangiku huffed and crossed her arms. This relationship between these two sometimes really got on her nerves. It wasn't like she was objecting to it, but this kind of one-was-here-and-the-other-was-there situation always left her to cheer up whomever she was stuck with. But right now, she didn't feel like cheering Shuuhei up. In fact, she was a little annoyed at him for not listening to her.

Maybe, it was time for a little payback.

"Well, I might be just as good as to go after Kira." Ah, there, at least the ear twitched.

Rangiku continued, "After all, he's cute, he's sweet, he's very kind and attractive." She felt the satisfaction as Shuuhei looked up and his eyes narrowing.

"Yes, he is a decent man. Maybe I should go after him," she finished. At that, Shuuhei immediately stood and glared at her.

"Kira is off. And besides, he's gay," he growled.

"Seriously? I thought maybe he's just too shy or something. Who knows, he might appreciate a woman's touch now and then. Are you sure he's gay? Perhaps he's a bi?" supplied Rangiku unhelpfully. The ninth division vice captain felt his hands twitched.

At the look of pure overprotective in Shuuhei's face, Matsumoto couldn't help but laugh.

"Whoa, okay, easy, man. I'm just kidding, alright?"

"You'd better be," Shuuhei muttered.

Matsumoto smiled. "You two are so cute, you know that? You really miss him, huh?"

Shuuhei only grumbled something incoherently and plopped down on nearest chair.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I went to human world today and I met Kira. He asked me to give you this." Rangiku produced a box from her sleeves and held it out for Shuuhei, which was immediately grabbed.

Shuuhei opened the package and found a bunch of unrecognizable things. They looked like a version of cans, but they had a cap on top of them; each of them looked exactly the same and was neatly wrapped. He took one out and inspected it further. "…what's this?"

Rangiku peered at the thing Shuuhei held, "It reads…instant coffee? What's that? Why would coffee be instant?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulder and turned the can around. "Hey, here are some instructions: Use 1 heaping teaspoon of coffee per cup. Pour 6oz. hot water (slightly less than boiling) coffee. Stir well, and enjoy."

"Hmmm…. Sounds interesting. Why don't we try it?" suggested Matsumoto.

Kira let out a tired sigh as he walked towards the ninth division building. He had just come back from the mission and was extremely weary. It was only understandable that he'd like to go straight home and rest. But before he did, he wanted to see Shuuhei first. After all, not seeing one's boyfriend for almost two weeks was not healthy, especially if the said boyfriend was someone as lovable as Shuuhei. Just thinking about him put a smile on Kira's face. Knowing Shuuhei loved coffee, he hoped Shuuhei would like his gift.

Izuru turned a corner and found the door that leads to the vice-captain's office. Quietly he opened the door and saw Shuuhei inside. His boyfriend was sitting behind his desk, a mountain of paperwork in front of him. A faint smell of coffee wafted in the air, and Izuru was pleased to see a cup nearby. As Shuuhei took a sip, Kira couldn't help but ask, "Do you like it?"

Shuuhei looked up from the report he had been reading and smiled. "You're home."

Kira closed the door behind him and walked towards Shuuhei. As the blonde deposited himself on his lap, Shuuhei immediately wrap his arms around Izuru's waist, preventing him to fall. Placing a kiss on the other's forehead, Kira repeated his question. "The coffee. You like it?"

"Of course I do. It's so easy to make. Besides, it tastes really good."

"Really? I'll be the judge of that." With that, Izuru closed the distance between them and pulled his boyfriend into a kiss, which Shuuhei happily returned.

The need of air quickly forced them to pull away. Looking into the other's eyes, Izuru smiled and said, "You're right. It's perfect."


End file.
